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Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / LABOR PAINS
Feb 25, 2015

Under Japanese law, breaks are sacred and standby counts as work

If your employer is keeping you waiting long hours on standby without paying you and calling it 'break time,' they are breaking the law.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 25, 2015

U.K. support for staying in EU hits record high in YouGov poll

More people say they support Britain staying in the European Union than at any point since 2010, according to YouGov PLC's tracker poll.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 25, 2015

Obama vetoes Republican attempt to force Keystone pipeline approval

President Barack Obama issued his third veto Tuesday to reject legislation that would allow construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, escalating a battle over the project with Republicans in Congress.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Feb 24, 2015

Caribou explains reasons behind the songs on his 1,000-track playlist on YouTube

The worlds of indie and club music are hardly irreconcilable, either in difference or distance, but it can often be hard to spot crossover success that extends beyond one-off hits or remix packages.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 23, 2015

Meet the man who helped Sony get its game back

"How many people came for video games?" asks a keynote presenter at Sony Corp.'s PlayStation bash in Las Vegas last December. The crowd roars. "And how many came to give Shu Yoshida a hug?" The roar gets even louder.
EDITORIALS
Feb 22, 2015

Nuclear waste disposal problem

Even as the Abe administration pushes for the reactivation of idled nuclear power reactors once they're declared safe, it has yet to address the question of how Japan will dispose of highly radioactive nuclear waste so as not to endanger future generations.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 22, 2015

Three reasons why Merkel acts so stubborn

There are three possible explanations why German Chancellor Angela Merkel seems so relentlessly uncompromising in the standoff between Greece and its euro creditors.
Japan Times
ENVIRONMENT / OUR PLANET EARTH
Feb 21, 2015

Inside the trenches of environmental rights

With the gruesome beheadings of journalists in the Middle East, an ugly truth is now common knowledge — being a reporter can be deadly.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 20, 2015

Kuroda ally says weak yen shouldn't stop more stimulus if needed

Concern about weakening the yen should not prevent the Bank of Japan from easing monetary policy further if necessary, said Masahiro Kawai, a university professor who has collaborated on research with Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda.
Japan Times
WORLD
Feb 19, 2015

Volunteers bled and led U.S. entry into World War I

Missing from chapters on World War I in most U.S. textbooks is the name of Edward Mandell Stone, a 27-year-old Harvard graduate from Chicago who made history with his death as a machine gunner in France 100 years ago this month.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Feb 18, 2015

Japanese basketball hurt by Robots debacle

The NBL, one of the two top men's basketball leagues in Japan, has endured a chaotic 2014-15 campaign, and the disarray reached its nadir with the management change of the Tsukuba Robots.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / COMMUNITY CHEST
Feb 16, 2015

Readers split over issue of U.S. military presence in Okinawa

Some emails and online comments in response to the claim by a U.S. military official that Okinawan protesters have faked their injuries.
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Feb 16, 2015

Japanese deaths stir debate on hostage rescue capabilities

Following the gruesome executions of two Japanese by the Islamic State group, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seems more eager than ever for legal authority to deploy Self-Defense Forces elements overseas, saying it is the government's duty to rescue its citizens.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 16, 2015

Tepco to mull rate hike if it can't restart Niigata nuclear complex

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it will need to consider raising electricity rates for the first time since 2012 unless it can restart the world's biggest nuclear plant.
Japan Times
BASKETBALL
Feb 15, 2015

Iwate's Oketani earns 300th career victory

When the bj-league tipped off in the fall of 2005, Dai Oketani was working as an assistant under Oita HeatDevils head coach Jawann Oldham, a former NBA big man.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Feb 15, 2015

Liberals work to lure Elizabeth Warren into White House race

The scene in the New Hampshire office is one common to any nascent U.S. presidential campaign in the state that holds the country's first primary contest: Young staffers peck away at laptops and unpack boxes of signs with their candidate's name.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Feb 14, 2015

Japan's public diplomacy is expensive and errant

Global understanding does not come cheaply. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government has budgeted ¥70 billion — yes, that's more than $500 million — to help get the word out about Japan and ensure that China and South Korea aren't the only ones controlling the narrative.
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 13, 2015

Uranium-rich Australia puts its nuclear taboo under review

While Australia is home to the world's largest uranium reserves, it has never had a nuclear power plant. Now, amid growing concerns over climate change, the government is weighing whether to reverse its long-held ban.
JAPAN
Feb 12, 2015

Author Sono calls for racial segregation in op-ed piece

A prominent author and former government adviser calls for Japan to adopt a system to force immigrants to live separately from Japanese in zones based on race.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2015

The U.S.-India nuclear breakthrough that wasn't

Nuclear power faces an uncertain future, with few new reactors under construction in the West. Yet India has continued to place the nuclear deal at the hub of its relationship with America.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 11, 2015

Has Australia caught the revolving leader bug?

With three prime ministers in the past two years and maybe a fourth before long, has Australia caught the dreaded Japanese disease of revolving leaders?
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Feb 11, 2015

A search for meaning in the arc of Goto’s life and the horror of his death

The frenzy of the hostage crisis and the visceral terror of the Islamic State group's executions have for a moment ushered Syria into Japanese youth's sphere of concern.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 10, 2015

Netanyahu considering changes to Congress speech after criticism

Israeli officials are considering amending the format of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned address to the U.S. Congress next month to try to calm some of the partisan furor the Iran-focused speech has provoked.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Feb 8, 2015

Is Australia ready to import Japan’s revolving-door-style politics?

Australian politics has worked itself into a frenzy. Prime Minister Tony Abbott, after ridiculing the previous Labor government for its public infighting, faces a leadership challenge from inside his own Liberal Party.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 7, 2015

In violent times, young Japanese just shrug

The weekly Shukan Kinyobi discerns a "new fatalism" among young people. Meaning what? A feeling that effort reaps no rewards and so is not worth making; that the world is what it is and cannot be changed — at least not by me, even if I felt like changing it, which I don't; that luck or inborn talent...

Longform

Bear attacks have dominated Japanese news headlines in recent months, with 13 people so far having been killed by the animals.
Japan’s bears have been on their killing spree for more than 100 years